Nutrition – Diet and Supplements
Maintaining a nutritious well balanced diet is important for long-term eczema treatment. Doing so ensures you are giving your body the right building blocks to generate healthy cells and keep a healthy medium in the body.
Firstly, you will need to remove foods or drinks that trigger an inflammatory response. This may manifest in a number of ways:
– Feeling flushed
– Drowziness / fatigue
– Sweaty / clammy
– Aches / pains
– Headache / migraine
– Nausea
– Itchy nose / throat
– Diarrhoea / Constipation
– Bloating / flatulence
Common offending foods are dairy, gluten, eggs, nuts, soy, food additives, wines etc. You will not be able to heal your gut if you keep consuming inflammatory foods. If you do, your eczema symptoms are likely to continue. If you are not sure what you are sensitive to, there are a couple of ways you can find out. One is to keep a food and symptom diary that tracks your weekly diet.
You write a comment next to a food stating how you felt after eating it (your symptoms). This will show you any patterns and makes it easier for you to pin point what foods are giving you trouble.
You can also eliminate the above categories of food for two weeks then slowly reintroduce them one by one and note a reaction. There is a range of allergy / intolerance tests available, from skin prick tests to blood tests. Feel free to come in and talk to our staff about managing your eczema symptoms and assisting with your diet.
Omega 3 Fish Oils – Help to keep the skin supple and contain anti-inflammatory properties that are useful in the treatment of eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis.
Zinc – This mineral helps to improve the immune response and is good for allergy mediated eczema. Zinc is very important for healing and promoting healthy cell renewal and wound healing. It also plays a crucial role in the metabolism of essential fatty acids (eg omega 3 fish oils).
Vitamin C – Is an antioxidant and plays an important role in skin health. Those suffering with eczema often have an increased amount of histamine. Histamine causes an inflammatory response, as seen in hay fever. Vitamin C helps to reduce histamine in the body, effectively working as an anti-inflammatory.
Salt therapy also provides an antihistamine like effect in the body in case you were interested! 🙂
B vitamins – Play an important role in circulation and cell reproduction and are very beneficial for the skin. B vitamins have a calming effect on the nervous system. If stress is an aggravating factor for your skin, take a high potency B complex or a multivitamin.
Himalayan Salt – Himalayan salt contains 84 trace minerals essential for health including magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium. It is also free from any chemicals.
Acidic bodies or high body pH can trigger eczema symptoms. Himalayan salt helps restore a balanced pH in the body.
Next week we will talk further about Himalayan salt therapy, as well as a range of natural topical treatments for eczema symptoms.
Tulsi x